Clacton MP Mr Carswell said on Twitter: "Tomorrow Ukip finally gets a new leader - and the chance to press the reset button. Exciting."

North West England MEP Mr Nuttall is the bookies' favourite to win the contest and he has called for Mr Farage to be given a seat in the Lords.

He told the Sunday Telegraph it was "unfair and obscene" that the Government had not created a single Ukip peer.

Mr Nuttall also set out his plans to target disillusioned voters in Labour heartlands in a bid to improve Ukip's presence at Westminster.

Diane James quit as leader after just 18 days (Getty Images Europe)

"We have this fantastic opportunity, which we've never had before to this extent, to move into Labour working-class communities and mop up votes," he said.

"I think in some of these communities we can replace the Labour Party in the next five years and become the patriotic party of the working people."

He added: "You've got a Labour Party whose leader refuses to sing the national anthem, whose shadow foreign secretary sneers at the flag, whose shadow chancellor says nice things about the IRA. That isn't going to chime well with working-class people."